Woman charged in Highway 95 shooting sentenced in Yuma
The woman charged in connection to last year’s shooting on U.S. Highway 95 was sentenced in Yuma County Superior Court on Tuesday.
Superior Court Judge David Haws sentenced Dorothy Sue Hall to 36 months of supervised probation for disorderly conduct per domestic violence.
As a condition of the probation, Hall was ordered to apply for acceptance into the Superior Court’s newly-established Veteran’s Treatment Program. If accepted, she must also successfully complete it.
Hall, who was represented by attorney Richard Parks, of the Yuma County Public Defender’s Office, pleaded guilty to the offense in a plea agreement with prosecutors in January.
In return for her guilty plea a charge of aggravated assault per domestic violence against her was dismissed.
According to the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office, at approximately 1 p.m. on Oct. 22, 2020, law enforcement received a report of a female pointing a gun at a man in the area of U.S. Highway 95, north of mile marker 40, and that shots had possibly been fired.
Troopers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) initially responded to the scene and began an investigation. Due to the nature of the incident U.S. Highway 95 was shut down in both directions.
DPS then advised Yuma Proving Ground that the incident potentially started on the installation’s property and the individuals involved may have fled on to one of its ranges, which prompted a “lockdown” at the base.
YPG police and Yuma
Sector Border Patrol agents were then contacted to assist with searching the area for the individuals involved. A helicopter from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations unit was also used.
A male and a female, now identified as Hall, were later located by state troopers on foot in the area of U.S. Highway 95 and mile marker 53. Two vehicles, a white Chevrolet van and a white Ford Explorer were also found abandoned in a wash in the same area.
It was at this point that DPS then contacted the sheriff’s office to turn over the investigation, at which time deputies responded and assumed a subsequent investigation.
During the course of YCSO’s investigation, it was determined that Hall had been driving the white van northbound on U.S. Highway 95, along with a male passenger.
The white Ford Explorer was being driven by another man, who has since been identified as her boyfriend, and he was the only occupant of the vehicle.
While both vehicles were traveling north on U.S. Highway 95, Hall conducted what is known as a “brake check” on the Ford Explorer, causing it to collide with the rear end of her white van.
Both vehicles then stopped along the shoulder of the highway near mile marker 40. Hull then got out of her van brandishing a 9mm handgun and fired a “warning shot” into the ground within the vicinity of the Ford Explorer in an attempt to make the driver quit following her.
The driver of the white Ford Explorer, who was still in his vehicle at the time, then immediately drove off, continuing northbound on U.S. Highway 95.
Moments afterward, Hall also continued northbound on the highway before eventually pulling off the shoulder of the roadway to park in a wash in the area of mile marker 53
At that point she and her male passenger got out of the vehicle and began walking. The driver of the white Ford Explorer saw the van pull off into the wash and then turned around, he said, to confront Hall and her passenger.
Law enforcement units were arriving on the scene by now and Hall, her passenger, and the driver of the Ford Explorer all fled on foot into the desert.
Hall and the driver of the Ford Explorer were located and detained by DPS troopers. Hall’s passenger, however, was picked up by another unknown vehicle and later located in the Town of Quartzsite.
No injuries were observed or reported by any of the individuals involved, and the firearm used in the incident was found in the area of mile marker 45.
Hall was arrested and booked into the Yuma County Detention Center on suspicion of aggravated assault per domestic violence, disorderly conduct per domestic violence, and endangerment per domestic violence.
The two male subjects involved were released. Traffic on Highway 95 was reopened once YCSO Investigators arrived on scene. YPG also lifted its “lockdown” and began allowing employees to leave the base at staggered intervals while the investigation was ongoing.